Gilt App Screen Shot | Source: Gilt Groupe

Mobile, Tablets Lead Holiday Charge (WWD)
“Holiday shopping has given new meaning to the term ‘click and order.’ In addition to a rise in the number of consumers and the average amount spent per buyer… Overall increases in online spending were fueled by other factors such as a surge in mobile and tablet commerce transactions, luxury brands that typically don’t discount, tiered sale offerings that offer deeper discounts the more you spend and an upsurge in the use of social media platforms.”

A Danish Fairy Tale Gone Awry (NY Times)
“It was a feat that made even skeptics believe in the power of a charm bracelet: a selection of 600 charms, in various combinations of gold, silver, wood and glass, cast in intricate shapes and designs, imbued with gems or semiprecious stones, transformed Pandora from a family-run jewelry shop in Copenhagen to a multibillion-dollar international brand.”

Forever 21 commits to opening three stores in China (LA Times)
“Forever 21 Inc. is opening a flagship store in Beijing, part of the company’s plan to reenter the world’s largest emerging consumer market… The expansion marks Forever 21′s second attempt to crack the China market. The company briefly operated a store in Changshu. But company officials closed it two years ago after concluding that the location was too remote and the store too small.”

Not Another One? (Vogue)
“It seems Emanuel Ungaro has lost yet another senior figure, as ceo Jeffry Aronsson – who arrived in June to attempt to ‘heal the bruises’ of the couture label – is reported to have departed. Aronsson, formerly of Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs and Oscar de la Renta.”

Poshmark Style App Turns Closets Into Marketplaces (Forbes)
“Startup Poshmark, founded by veterans of startup Kaboodle, has a new mobile app that aims to make it extremely easy for people to buy and sell clothing–all through the mobile phone… Poshmark founder and CEO Manish Chandra calls the service a mobile ‘marketplace for fashion,’ which is designed to take the friction out of selling clothing online.”

Pushing the Boundaries of Black Style (IHT)
“As opposed to the fascistically frozen street-style snaps of The Sartorialist and others, these pictures are styled and plotted fictions but also affecting ones, depicting a pair of young black men taking ownership not just of the body and what goes on it, but also of the environment it moves in… Already they have wide reach: Street Etiquette receives 20,000 page views a day.”

Abercrombie & Fitch profit rises 64% (Market Watch)
“Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 64% as the teen-apparel retailer’s sales continued to soar, though rising costs hurt margins… Abercrombie & Fitch has seen strong results of late, aided by more promotional pricing and the growth of its international business. But like other clothing retailers, the company has said higher prices are on the way because of increased raw material costs.”

Forever 21’s Suppliers Are Also Being Sued for Copyright Infringement (The Cut)
“Forever 21 has defended itself against over 40 copyright infringement lawsuits by throwing their vendors under the bus. The company’s president, Do Won “Don” Chang, has said that their policy is to trust their suppliers not to break the law, rather than checking everything that they sell. So in order to cover all their bases, clothing label Feral Childe is suing both Forever 21, as well as the factory outside L.A. that supplied the copied design.”

Pandora’s IPO Under Investigation (Forbes)
“Danish regulators have recommended an investigation of Pandora’s IPO. The jewelry maker issued one of the largest floats in 2010. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, the country’s market regulator, said Tuesday they will ask police to investigate Nordea Bank Denmark, a unit of Sweden’s Nordea, for failing to report its financial interest in Pandora in an investment analysis prior to the company’s float in October.”

London: fashion capital of the world (Telegraph)
“London has overtaken New York as the world’s fashion capital for 2011, according to a survey by the Texas-based trend analyser, Global Language Monitor… Based on a system that tracks the frequency of words and phrases in print, electronic and social media, London has officially claimed the top spot – which New York had claimed for several years – after a surge in media interest.”

The gospel according to Forever 21 (Guardian)
“This is the American fashion chain run as a family business, the chain that, thanks to its “pile very high, sell very cheap” operation, has been a phenomenal success, with profits (in 2008) of $135m despite the fact that nothing it sells costs more than $65.”

Mulberry Tops Fashion Retailers on Sales Boom (Bloomberg)
“The 40-year-old British luxury-handbag maker, is the world’s best-performing fashion retail stock over the past year… Investors are betting Mulberry…will join the likes of Burberry Group Plc as an iconic luxury brand.”

Designs on Doha (FT)
“Muslimah dress restrictions have paved the way for an accessories boom in the Middle East. For affluent young women here, however, designer accessories are not symbolic of money or aspiration but are simply the norm. So they increasingly seek out unfamiliar territory in the form of emerging designers.”

Sitting in the lap of luxury (China Daily)
“While consumers in Japan, the United States and Europe are scrimping on luxury goods, the swelling ranks of big spenders in China are taking in whatever the “haute” houses in Paris or Milan can serve up… Luxury brands feel no constraint in boosting their prices to cover rising costs and foreign exchange losses.”

Designers Revisit Copyright Protection (On the Runway)
“…Five years into a campaign by the Council of Fashion Designers of America to enact some sort of protection for original designs…One of the biggest differences in the new bill is that designers would have to prove that a copy is “substantially identical” to their originals, rather than “substantially similar.”

Acne Paper Spring/Summer 2010 Photographed by Daniel Jackson | Source: Acne

Northern Discretion: Thomas Persson of Acne Paper (Interview)
“When Acne Paper was founded in 2004 as a literary prong of the multi-faceted Swedish denim empire, it faced a challenge: having to prove its creative independence, and its worthiness beyond being a fancy bit of advertising.”

Louis Vuitton, Burberry Win Millions in Landmark Canadian Counterfeit Suit (Forbes)
“Louis Vuitton and Burberry have won significant damages in Canada’s single largest trademark counterfeit and copyright case…  The fashion houses had filed suit last year… claimed that Singga, Carnation and Altec had been selling fake handbags, along with other “fashion accessories.”

Business is brisk for fashion brand Valentino: CEO (Reuters)
“Italian fashion brand Valentino is enjoying solid demand for haute couture pieces, thanks to Middle Eastern, Russian and U.S. buyers and trading overall continues to improve.”

A Vision in Melancholy (NY Times)
“For Chanel’s haute couture show here Tuesday night, he recreated the Place Vendôme inside the Grand Palais… Dresses… Added to the fin-de-siècle melancholia… it’s a legitimate mood in an overbright, bored world. It was just unclear how to read it against kitsch scenery.”

Bip Ling unveiled as new face for Forever 21 (Fashion Monitor)
“Model and DJ Bip Ling has been announced as the latest face of the US fashion store, Forever 21… Spanning three floors, the new Forever 21 London store is unveiled to the public on July 27.”

Balanciaga Spring 2011 Runway | Source: Style.com

In Paris, Designers Hit the Redial Button (NY Times)
“Nicolas Ghesquiere was showing Balenciaga at the Crillon, Balmain was at the Grand, and an American, Zac Posen, was making his debut here, in the very place where Yves Saint Laurent used to show. So why did the day feel like a broken record?”

Forever 21 to launch in the UK (Telegraph)
“Forever 21, America’s answer to Primark and New Look, will be opening two stores in the UK this Autumn. The brand makes inexpensive clothing and accessories that ape up-to-the-minute trends, with new styles arriving daily in their shops.”

H&M, Zara Fast Fashion Pressures Luxury Labels to Speed Up (Bloomberg)
“Luxury companies need to improve their logistics to react more quickly to changes in consumption patterns… Burberry Group is now able to replenish stock monthly and in April introduced a limited-edition… which went from design to store in three months.”

Giving Affluents the Luxury Treatment Online (e-Marketer)
“Affluent consumers expect luxury retailers’ websites to replicate the same shopping experience they offer in their stores… Luxury retailers are challenged to mimic that experience online.”

Hermès to the rescue of Indian crafts? (Live Mint)
“If a hundred Shang Xia’s bloom, Asia’s fast-evaporating artisanal heritage will not only get a second lease of life, it will be raised to a whole new level. At their core, luxury brands are cultural products, their heritage coded and reinterpreted for contemporary times.”

J.W. Hulme Heritage Leather Duffle Bag | Source: J.W. Hulme

Restitching a Firm That Nearly Unraveled (WSJ)
“J.W. Hulme Co., a Minnesota luggage maker that almost came unraveled during the credit crisis, is on the mend.  A private-equity firm provided the 105-year-old company with a cash infusion of $550,000… [the brand] will be carried in more than 30 Barneys New York stores around the country by mid-August.”

For Shoppers Who Never Drop (WSJ)
“‘But New York City is different’, said Linda Chang, who runs Forever 21′s marketing department. ‘New York is the city that never sleeps. Even at 2 a.m., foot traffic and sales are worth keeping the store open later… keeping late hours was a mix of strategy and experimentation.’”

Coach beats estimates, shares slip on growth concerns (Reuters)
“While Chief Executive Lew Frankfort said on a call that far more of the shoppers who did step into Coach stores made purchases, helping to boost sales, the lower traffic trend raised concerns on Wall Street about Coach’s ability to meet its sales targets.”

Playful and Sleek, With Subversive Twists (NY Times)
“The man behind the fashion label  wears his philosophy about life, and clothing, tattooed upon his arms… Despite his fixation with both literal and metaphorical black, [he] is by far the most colorful character on the Spanish fashion scene.”

Vogue: The September Issue (Telegraph)
“Tumbling yesterday out of the dark clouds of recession, unemployment and austerity came that gleaming almanac of glamour and self-indulgence, the September Issue of Vogue.”

And The ANDAM Winner Is… (Style.com)
“Turkish designer Hakaan Yildirim is the newest winner of ANDAM’s €220,000 prize… It was only last February, before his first London show, that English fashion scribes were wondering in print: ‘Who is Hakaan?’”

Erdem Moralioglu: A man for all seasons (Independent)
“His printing technique involves the designer playing around creatively on his computer for hours, digitally altering prints by blurring them or re-sizing them, painting over them and destroying them. ‘It’s always quite a lengthy, organic process and we never really know what the end result will be.’”

Price of luxury rises despite the recession (Telegraph)
“With the super-rich beginning to spend freely once more the prices of upmarket services and products have rallied for the first time since the financial crisis began.”

Japan Opens Doors to More Chinese Shoppers (WSJ)
“Swarms of Asian tourists disembark from a bus with tinted windows, snapping pictures and staring in awe at Japan’s capital city while a petite tour guide waving a flag shouts instructions—in Mandarin.”

Forever 21 Pursues Big-Store Branding (WSJ)
“Teens continue to swarm Forever 21′s piles of inexpensive, high-fashion-imitating party dresses and tank tops. But moving into cavernous spaces, like the 90,000-square-foot spot near 46th and Broadway, is forcing the chain into new categories… where its hold on consumers is less certain.”

The Japanese flag

Japan’s economy shrinks 3.3% (IHT)
The world’s second largest economy is experiencing its worst downturn in 35 years.

H&M sales boosted by new openings (Drapers)
Driven by new store openings, H&M’s sales rose 9% in January.

Sombre start to NYFW (Drapers)
“New York Fashion Week got off to a somewhat sombre start on Friday, according to reports from the US, with collection sizes reduced by up to 25%.”

New York week opens with an ’80s glam slam (IHT)
“Rather than leaping into the future, designers are looking back to a previous period when women were strong, powerful and dressed to suit: the 1980s.”

Forever 21 to Open Larger Concept in L.A. (WWD)
“Fast-fashion chain Forever 21 plans to launch a prototype in California this year that will double its average store size.” (Subscription required)